It is often said, not least in relation to Greek tragedy, that if the two members of an asyndetic pair are not of the same syllabic length the longer term will usually be placed second. The rule for Greek seems to be stated mainly in reference to asyndetic pairs of verbs. Diggle (1994: 99), for example, says: ‘When, in his lyrics, Euripides juxtaposes a pair of verbs in asyndeton, he observes the practice of sound rhetoric: he makes the second verb equal in length to the first, so that it may balance it, or he makes it longer, so that it may outweigh it.’ Twenty-two examples are quoted, with just one case where the rhetorical tendency is not observed. The pairs quite often have the same fore-element. On p. 100 Diggle states that he has included in the list only passages where the verbs are absolute or have a common object.